Thursday, January 22, 1998Last modified at 2:08 a.m. on Thursday, January 22, 1998

Tech leading academic authority on Vietnam Conflict

By MIKE W. THOMAS

Avalanche-Journal

Texas Tech's Center for the Study of the Vietnam Conflict has evolved during the past 10 years to become one of the leading academic authorities on that controversial period in our history.

"Texas Tech is getting national and international recognition because of this research," said James Reckner, the center's director. "Texas Tech is developing tremendous credibility worldwide. Fifty or 100 years from now, some historian will want to write a paper on Vietnam ... and discover they must come to Texas Tech."

This past year, Tech accumulated more archival materials on the Vietnam conflict than any other institution apart from the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

In June, Douglas Pike, former director of the IndoChina Archive at the University of California at Berkeley, brought his extensive collection of materials to Tech. Then in October, the center received 48 boxes of material from the landmark libel suit filed against CBS by Gen. William C. Westmoreland. Westmoreland was commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, and the materials from the lawsuit include hundreds of CIA and Pentagon documents that were declassified for the trial as well as the complete transcript of the court proceedings.

In addition to offering research opportunities, the center is also becoming recognized for its regular symposiums that it sponsors. The symposiums in the past have attracted such important historical figures as Adm. Elmo Zumwalt Jr., who commanded U.S. Naval forces in Vietnam, and the late William Colby who was an intelligence officer and later director of the CIA.

Reckner said the symposium has a reputation for being balanced and in looking at the issues from all sides. That has allowed the center to host former leaders of both sides of the conflict during its panel discussions.

One such panel, conducted last April, featured former North Vietnamese Col. Bui Tin along with former South Vietnamese Gen. Nguyen Khanh. The former adversaries reflected on the conflict from their different perspectives and talked about the problems faced by Vietnam now and in the future.